The Fancy Fast Food blog is dedicated to remixing horrible fast food so that it looks and tastes great, even it still has all the nutritive value of a sack of greasy, heavily salted fiberglass. Here's tortellini made from a pair of Taco Bell Fancy Burrito Supremes:

Think outside the tortilla. Carefully unwrap the Burrito Supremes and soft taco, and extract their stuffings in a bowl. Carefully rinse off each of the tortillas, and then briefly steam them in a steamer to soften and moisten them. Then lay each tortilla on a cutting board and cut circles in it using a small circular cookie cutter, or simply an empty tin can measuring around 2 1/2" in diameter. Take the filling and put a small amount in each small tortilla circle, then fold it in half and pinch it into a tortellini shape. The moisture should keep it sticky enough to stay put. Pile the tortellinis on a plate. Next, cut open and pour the contents of the sauce packets in a measuring cup, then generously drizzle the sauce over the tortellini. Garnish with parsley and serve with Sierra Mist in a wine glass.

Fancy Fast Food (via Kottke)

A reader writes, "Take one part Threadless shirt design and one part cake mix, add in some fondant and frosting and you have Threadcakes: An online cake contest based on transforming Threadless designs into cakes."

Threadcakes Gallery! :: Threadcakes: A Threadless Cake

I've mentioned my beloved Kitchen Aid espresso machine here before, but I need to mention it again. Last week, I noticed that the enamel had started to flake off, peeling away in big strips the size of business-cards. Dreading a bureaucratic runaround, I dug out my Amazon receipt, then called up Kitchen Aid's warranty number. Apart from a small problem getting the correct number (the number listed on their site is out of service), it went amazingly.

The operator asked for my serial number, asked me to describe the problem, then asked if I could be at some address the next day to receive my replacement unit and ship back the defective one. I gave her my office address, and yesterday at around 2PM, a DHL guy showed up with a brand new espresso machine in its package. I lifted it out, replaced it with the defective one, watched as the DHL guy slapped a return sticker on it, and then he left, leaving me a shiny new coffee machine that I brought home in a cab (two people on the street and the cabbie all stopped me and asked me about this beautiful coffee machine and whether it worked as good as it looked and where they could get one of their own). This morning, I enjoyed a perfect cappuccino with breakfast, and ruminated on just how damned good the customer service from Kitchen Aid had been, and I figured, man, that deserves some public approbation.

Update: Canadians beware! Multiple commenters to this post have weighed in to describe nightmarish treatment from the Canadian Kitchen Aid service department, who seem well and truly awful. My experience recounted above was with Kitchen Aid UK.

Shiv Sena, the ultra-right Hindu nationalist party in India, has launched a global brand of snack food called the Shiv Vada -- a sandwich containing deep-fried potato ball. They want to make it as popular as hamburgers.

The initiative is being seen as an attempt by the saffron party, which popularised the 'vada pav', staple diet of many a Mumbaikar, four decades ago, to establish rapport with the 'Marathi manoos', whose tilt in favour of Sena offshoot MNS, cost the party dearly in recent Lok Sabha polls.

"In foreign countries, burger is available 24-hours. Why can't vada pav be also available similarly," Uddhav said. The party, which has started a cooperative to encourage Marathi entrepreneurs, showcases 'Shiv Vada' as its first project under the new initiative, sources said. "To begin with, 25 Shiv Vada stalls would be operational in the city," they said.

Shiv Sena launches 'Shiv Vada'; to take it global

(Image: Jumbo Vada Pav.jpg, CC-BY, Wikimedia Commons)

In Brooklyn, the Lutheran Halal Cafe. As Patrick Nielsen Hayden notes, "I wonder what Lutheran halal cuisine would entail. Doner kabab hot dish?"

In Brooklyn, about a mile south of us (via Making Light)

Channel 4's gallery of Victorian and Edwardian kitchenware has many outstanding glimpses into the fine bygone era (moustache protectors, anyone?), but nothing can top this original, gleaming Teasmade: "A flame was triggered by the alarm clock, which heated the kettle. Once at boiling point the steam would lift a hinged flap tilting the kettle and filling the tea pot. Simple. It's not known how much tea ended up on the sheets."

Teasmade (via Making Light)

This fantastic courthouse-scene-from-Back -to-the-Future cake was Flickr user Snot Boogie's wedding cake: "The cake was the clock tower and was red velvet. It was done by Caryn's Cakes in Atlanta."

Wedding Cake (Thanks, Jay!)

Heinz's Beanzawave is a USB-powered microwave that operates in concert with Heinz's "Snap Pots" individually-sized baked beans cups. This is all so that you can eat baked beans at your keyboard without having to burn unnecessary calories getting up and walking to the kitchen or break room. I wonder if Heinz will follow this up with other bean-delivery innovations -- for example, they could carbonate the beans by including one of those CO2 cartridges that you get in cans of Guinness: fizzy bean desk-snax for everybody!

Beanzawave: The World's Smallest Microwave (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Jason sez, "I took this photo of the groom's cake from my sister's wedding this past weekend. As you can see, the cake is adorned with giant, edible polyhedral dice. (I'm not sure what they are made out of, but the cake itself was chocolate and delicious.)"

d20 groom's cake (Thanks, Jason!)

ThinkGeek's Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold is just what every elegant dinner party needs, especially if you make an aspic-and-baby-marshmallow gelatin salad with it.

Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold (Thanks, Alice!)

Lissette sends in these photos of her delicious-looking cakes based on Katamari Damacy characters. I love the staying power this game has -- it's definitely my favorite new game of the 2000s so far.

Katamari Cakes (Thanks, Lissette

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Steven's leveled up his pizza stone by building a cheap, effective refractory brick enclosure in his oven that lets him attain very high temperatures and kick-ass pizzas.

You're going to pre-heat to 500F. But how do you know when the stone is ready? You could give it maybe 30 minutes and hope for the best. Or, splurge a little. A $45 infrared digital thermometer is not only a fun toy, it's the perfect way to assess surface temp from a safe distance.

Open the oven and quickly shine the beam onto the stone every 15 minutes. Any more often than that will a) let more heat escape, and b) lower your spirits. Compared to when I pre-heated the pizza stone all by its lonesome, getting the stone up to 470F when surrounded by the brick house took 30 minutes longer. Makes sense, you've just added twice as much ceramic or terra cotta to the mix.

How To: build the ultimate, cheap home pizza oven

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

Just when you thought the retro vIdeo-game cupcake thing had reached its zenith, along come Trophy cupcakes with this Ms Pac-Man cupcake tableau to take it to a whole new level!

Ms. Pacman cupcakes from Trophy cupcakes (via Wonderland!)

Tessie sez, "My husband has a very talented student who in honor of March 10th made Mar10 cookies. She cut out the shapes and frosted them using only a butter knife. She gave 7 different cookies to us and this was just a few of the many she made."

MAR10 cookies (Thanks, Tessie!)

Beth sez, "These are cookies i made, Super Mario, Pac Man and Pokeball cupcakes. It was my solution to 'what do I give my geeky boyfriend who has everything for Valentines?'"

Swoon! Now that's sugary sweet geek-lovin'!

Cookies for my love (Thanks, Beth!)

Here's the perfect vegetarian geek lunch: a Tetris bento box! Not as good as the Donkey Kong lasagne, of course.

Bento Tuesday (Thanks, BingoTheChimp!)

These delightful gentlemen have attained the holy grail of sloppy-chef cooking: Saturday Night Live's Taco Town Taco: a taco in a taco in a gordita in a pizza in a blueberry pancake in batter, deep fried. Yes, you can buy these at every kebab shop in Glasgow, but it's a very good effort for Americans.

Pizza? Now that's what I call a taco! (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Doran sez, "A retired barber named Joe Godlewski wasn't happy with all that 'Kosher salt' TV chefs use, so he's selling sea salt, blessed by an Episcopalian priest and marketing it as 'Christian Salt'. Of course, most chefs use Kosher salt because of its properties, and not because of any blessing which may have been given by a rabbi."

Oh, sure, but what if you're not an Episcopalian? What about Mormons, Baptists, Catholics and Scientologists? Where's their salt?

Christian salt seller hopes to shake up market

Here's an ill-advised HOWTO from Instructables user Lemonie that shows you how to turn your useless VCR into an incredibly dangerous toaster:

If I thought anyone would attempt this (and they shouldn't) I'd offer the following warnings:
Ensure the metal parts are earthed (I did)
Do not place it on heat-sensitive surfaces.
Do not place heat-sensitive materials on top of it.
Take care not to touch any hot surfaces.
Do not leave the machine unattended.

How to make a VHS video toaster (via OhGizmo)

Like I said earlier today, I'm a sucker for any breakfast that smiles back at me, so a hearty "hell yes" to Janis Paintbox's gallery of decorated oatmeal.

The Art of Oatmeal (Thanks, Leopold Bloom!)

Update: in the comments, Rob from theHumm sez, "My father-in-law does these for my mother-in-law every morning. A few years ago we put together this poster as a birthday present for him and as a fundraiser for the local food bank. All credit goes to my wife for the great headline text."

Jake von Slatt sez, "A local baker created this wonderful cake for some lucky steampunk!"

Steampunk Cake! (Thanks, Jake!)

Heidi Kenney's caterpillar pancakes are utter perfection -- a cuteness of great and weighty proportion, beckoning from the breakfast tray. Seriously, I'm a sucker for any breakfast that smiles back at me (my folks used to make me smiling pancakes with faces made out of banana slices and raisins), and this is the zenith of the form.

foodies (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Kristen's Zombie Hello Kitty cake combines every wonderful thing: zombies, Hello Kitty, ganache, and trademark infringement. Well done that cake-maker!

Kristin's Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

Marilyn points us to Hospitalis in Riga, Latvia, a hospital themed restaurant where, "the food is served in syringes, flasks and operating-room dishes, and customers can be tied up in straight jackets." The waitresses all wear fetish-nurse outfits and Milla-Jovavich-in-Fifth-Element red wigs:

The food is served in flasks and operating-room’s dishes and isn’t that cheap (7 and more lats per meal), but this is a bizarre experience that is worth breaking the bank. Besides, the place is owned by local doctors, but unfortunately, the president of Latvia, who is also a doctor, declined his appearance at the opening once he realized how weird this place actually is.

Hospirestaurant - Hospital Themed Restaurant in Latvia (Thanks, Marilyn!

Super-barista and frequent Boing Boing video personality Kyle Glanville shares news of interest to all java devotees: the first-ever Specialty Coffee Association Barista Competition takes place this weekend in Los Angeles, January 23rd to 25th, in the beautiful Spring Arts Tower Building in Downtown LA. Above, a video about the competition. If you go to this event, here is my advice: do not walk up to these guys and ask them to make you a Venti half-caf goatmilk frappucino with extra foam and sugarfree caramel syrup, because you're likely to get barista-slapped.

Link to previous Boing Boing blog posts and videos featuring Kyle, and Link to previous coffee-related blog posts and videos here.

Casu marzu is an illegal Sardinian cheese that is served riddled with writhing maggots that try to jump into your eyeballs as you eat it.

Casu marzu is considered toxic when the maggots in the cheese have died. Because of this, only cheese in which the maggots are still alive is eaten. When the cheese has fermented enough, it is cut into thin strips and spread on moistened Sardinian flatbread (pane carasau), to be served with a strong red wine.[6][7] Casu marzu is believed to be an aphrodisiac by local Sardinians.[1] Because the larvae in the cheese can launch themselves for distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in) when disturbed,[5][8] diners hold their hands above the sandwich to prevent the maggots from leaping into their eyes.[3] Those who do not wish to eat live maggots place the cheese in a sealed paper bag. The maggots, starved for oxygen, writhe and jump in the bag, creating a "pitter-patter" sound. When the sounds subside, the maggots are dead and the cheese can be eaten.[9]

Casu marzu (via William Gibson)

(Image: Snob food.jpg, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike photo in the Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Shardan)

Nixon's "Sunny Side Up" tees have a trompe l'oeil effect that will proudly declare your allegiance to unfertilized dinosaur ova to all and sundry. Plus, no one will be able to tell if you get egg on your shirt.

SUNNY SIDE UP (via Geisha Asobi)

JD sez, "In the grand tradition of amazing edible sculpture comes this nerdy piece of jaw-dropping confectionery. It's holding a d20, and sitting on a white chocolate hoard. There's a lot of really amazing detail in this thing. Seriously. A dragon made of cake." Dragon cake (Thanks, JD!)

Julian Kreusser is an adorable foodie five-year-old with his own cooking show, "The Big Kitchen With Food" on Portland cable access TV. He cooks others' recipes and his own ("Yummy Yummy Citrus Boy") and he's absolutely fabulous. BrooklynTwang sez, "his story is full of win - there is the coolness of a 5 year old boy who loves cooking, the refreshingness of a cooking show with an awkward host, and what appears to be some very cool free range parenting, encouraging the kids enthusiasm for something and letting him use food processors, stoves, etc. to follow his muse. I just watched an episode and it was rad. It even included a plug from Julian to buy your food locally because its better for you!"

Five-Year-Old Chef Gets His Own Show, (Thanks, BrooklynTwang

Another installment in our "faves from 2008" BoingBoing tv retrospective -- this two-parter in which Mark Frauenfelder gets an exclusive tour of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. Above, part one, below, part two, and MP4 links for download here:

* A Morning at Intelligentsia Part 1
* A Morning at Intelligentsia Coffee Part 2

Snip from the original post:

Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is based out of Chicago, Illinois and has recently opened up a new store in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Kyle Glanville, head of research and development at Intelligentsia and winner of the 2008 US Barista Championship shows Mark how they acquire and roast some of the finest coffee in the world.

The word intelligentsia derives from the Latin word intelligentia, meaning a group of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture. Kyle Glanville has been laboring to promulgate a new coffee culture with Intelligentsia to combat the "get up and go" mentality, and Mark is along for the ride to learn the careful art of roasting coffee.

Intelligentsia is located at 3922 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90029 and is open 7 days a week.

And see also this related BBtv episode: Looking for the Perfect Bean: Kyle Glanville's World Coffee Tour, part 1 - Brazil (direct MP4 Link).

Machine Project, a wonderful little alt/tech gallery and event space in Los Angeles where we've shot many a Boing Boing tv episode, is hosting another one of their annual holiday season Fry-B-Ques.

Last year, BBtv attended, and we shot the episode above. You're not actually supposed to fry gadgets, and now that a year has passed, fine, I can reveal that we did not really fry a cellphone. It's all Final Cut magic. Fake. Fakefakefake. You cannot fry cellphones, or gadgets, or bailed-out automobile manufacturers, or credit default swaps, or anything non-edible at the Fry-B-Que. There, that's over with. I feel so much better.

Now, then. If you go, here is my advice: do not eat anything for like 48 hours beforehand. Here's the blurb from Machine Project:

Fry-B-Q is here! Please join us on Sunday, December 14th at 8pm. This year there's a new twist — Pie-B-Q! Head to Machine for the fried food extravaganza and live music by Emily Lacy & friends, and then go next door to our neighbors the Echo Park Film Center for screenings of new videos from the Machine Project Field Guide to LACMA, rare Machine home videos and pies. Pies! Starts at 8pm. Admission to the event is free, pay $5 for all you can fry privileges, and $5 for all you can pie privileges. Things to do:

1) Arrive between 8 - 11 pm Sunday Dec 14th.

2) Bring something edible to fry. Our trained fryolater technicians will be standing by, eager to batter and fatify your soon to be delicious snacks. Our extensive testing suggests that almost any item will bring great fried satisfaction - potatoes, fish, vegetables, onions, twinkies, etc. Just in case we bought extra fire extinguishers.

3) prepare for eating pie.

4) Bring cash or checks (or credit cards) small and large and become a friend of Machine Project. We need your help to keep doing what we do, and your membership fee is fully tax deductible. Details on our support page.

Incidentally, Machine Project was written up in the NYT recently, and hey! Look at that. Boing Boing was also mentioned in the article.

Wanna cook a pizza at home, but are unwilling to cut up your oven so that you can get the self-clean cycle to run up to 800 degrees to get the crust just right? Try Heston "Fat Duck" Blumenthal's technique: stick an upside-down cast-iron skillet under the broiler, crank the heat up to max for 20 minutes and lay a slab of pizza dough (even the gunk from Domino's will do) for a minute and a half.

And here’s the good news: Although the Domino's dough looks horrid compared to the corner pizza’s store (dense and flat and a weird color), for thin-crust pizzas made in this cast-iron-and-broiler fashion, Domino's is actually ... really good. In a four-person blind-taste test, the favorite between Domino's and our corner pizzeria was split right down the middle. Honest. People couldn’t tell the difference. And the Domino's dough, probably due to some mysterious ingredients, was very, very easy to stretch into a pie. This cooking technique took dough from one of the worst pizzas available and made it taste good. The fact that Domino's foists doughy, disgusting pizzas on the public when it could easily do otherwise is almost a crime.

Pizza Hack: Broil Your Pies (via Kottke)

Flickr user AbbieTabbie makes astonishingly awesome, detailed nursery-rhyme cupcakes that evinced two involuntary reactions from me: my jaw dropped and my salivary glands started pumping.

Nursery Rhyme Cupcakes (Thanks, Amelia!)

In this 1936 Modern Mechanix article, a fantasy about shrinking the Library of Congress to fit "in a few small filing cabinets" on microfiche/film. Once this is done, copies of the great library will be distributed to worthy institutions all over the world.

This is one of the Ur-dreams of librarianship, what Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive calls "universal access to all human knowledge." Today's Internet was shaped by people who share the dream. It's a beautiful one.

Each volume so reduced in size is housed in a sealed cartridge not much larger than a 12-gauge shotgun shell. When desired for reading, it is inserted in a small cabinet, the light turned on, and the copy is projected upon a screen, enlarged to comfortable reading size and unaccompanied by glare...

One of the greatest advantages of film books is that small schools and libraries with limited space and money can afford to have all the material which is now available only in the large cities. Files of perishable newspapers can be photographed and thus preserved indefinitely. The cost of making film books will be much below that of printing regular books and their small size also eliminates the storage problem.

Canned Libraries Open New Vistas To Readers (Aug, 1936)